36 EROPA Bulletin
Governability (Management)...
(From page 35)
participation in governance. Because Indonesians are
active in the use of mobile phones, Ms. Ella believes
that citizens can use their mobile phones to reach
out to their government officials. In addition to the
increasing number of users of mobile phones in all
provinces in Indonesia, another factor that allows for
an opportunity for people to express their aspirations
to the government is the improving services and
infrastructure
of the country’s
The technology
telecommunications
brought by mobile
companies. According
phones can be an
to Ms. Ella, the
effective mechanism technology brought by
mobile phones can be
to implement
an effective mechanism
e-democracy in
to implement
Indonesia.
e-democracy
in Indonesia.
She suggested
harnessing this opportunity by working with the
private sector and the citizens, and supporting
infrastructure development. However, along with
this opportunity are challenges that may hinder
or slow the implementation of e-democracy. Ms.
Ella identified these challenges as the following:
political will of leaders, the costs and requirements
of information management, and issues of what she
calls “socialization”, which includes lack of national
and local government coordination and the various
characteristics of the Indonesian people.
Efforts by Kyoto Prefecture to Reform its
Administrative Management System
Mr. Satoshi Harada shared the experience of Kyoto
Prefecture Government in addressing public service
demands and adapting to the challenges of local
service delivery requirement. In particular, it reformed
the local administration system infrastructure – both
at the prefectural and municipal levels – through the
use of data centric information and communications
technology (ICT). It adopted new methods to achieve
the most efficient local government support services
Vol. 34 Nos. 3-4 (July-December 2013)
Overall, the reform
with least possible cost.
efforts achieved
It was able to institute
better collaboration
operational
and information
collaboration
sharing among its
and enhanced
municipalities, and
administrative
was able to engage
efficiency to the best
stronger partnerships
possible level.
with the private sector
in the provision of
local government frontline services. Overall, the
reform efforts achieved operational collaboration
and enhanced administrative efficiency to the best
possible level through the use of digital canal,
electronic approval system, integrated GIS system,
municipal-based administrative support system and
integrated financial management. The efforts likewise
achieved and reformed local tax administration,
lower operating system cost, and partnership with the
private sector through outsourcing the pay calculation
system, thereby, further improving local government
efficiency, and effectiveness.
The Government’s Methods of Acquiring
Professionals for the Crisis Management and
Reconstruction
Mr. Koichi Kawai of
Waseda University
described the
professionals that deal
with crisis management
and reconstruction. He
eventually identifies
individuals that
governments should
provide in a critical
situation like calamities and other disasters.
He then describes formal and informal institutional
frameworks to secure the professionals that
Japanese municipal governments utilize in disaster
risk reduction management (i.e. calamities).
Municipalities create and use the frameworks for their
efforts to support post-disaster reconstruction. Next
is the analysis of primary documents provided by
municipal governments (Continued on the next page)